Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Blog Index

The Finanser’s Week: 19th August – 25th August 2024

The main blog discussions this week include … Which European country worries the most about money? I just got pinged with some research about which countries are trying to save money the most from Finansvalp, a Swedish price comparison service and information site that writes about and compares banking services. Usually I ignore such surveys…

The Finanser’s Week: 13th August – 18th August 2024

This week’s main blog discussions include … Is the fintech bloodbath over? I find it hard to believe that two years ago I was writing about a fintech bloodbath and, two years later, it continues. The drying up of funding, the post-pandemic recession, the way in which the markets were moving from funding to divesting….

The Finanser’s Week: 5th August – 12th August 2024

This week’s main blog discussions include … Does the US Presidential race hinge on crypto? I don’t like blogs on a Saturday – we should be relaxing – but this X update from one of the Winklevoss twins (Tyler) caught my eye and so I just thought I would leave it here. Here’s what Tyler…

The Finanser’s Week: 29th July – 4th August 2024

This week’s main blog discussions include … Multisensory payments: is this the future? I just spotted a new innovation in India from Paytm, who I consider friends of mine after interviewing their founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma for Digital Human a few years ago. What’s the innovation? Talking payments. The Paytm soundbox – which works both online and…

The Finanser’s Week: 22nd July – 28th July 2024

This week’s main blog discussions include … With great power, comes great threat #Revolut #PayPal With great power, comes great responsibility. It’s a quote from Spiderman, but actually not. It’s from Spiderman’s Uncle Ben. Well, it’s not tbh. It’s from Voltaire … or is it? Wherever it is from, it’s a great phrase. So, here’s…

The Finanser’s Week: 15th July – 21st July 2024

This week’s main blog discussions include … The CrowdStrike issue and its impact on Microsoft I was talking with my 8 year-old son and said that the whole world had just stopped. He asked what do you mean? I replied that everything stopped. Airlines, banks, shops, trains, hospitals and more. He asked what happened? I…

The Finanser’s Week: 8th July – 14th July 2024

This week’s main blog discussions include … The CIO managing a $17 billion budget and $10 trillion of transactions PER DAY I just spotted a great article about JPMorgan’s CIO who manages a $17 billion budget (last time I looked, it was $11 billion). That sort of budget makes most fintechs look like small fry….

The Finanser’s Week: 1st July –7th July 2024

This week’s main blog discussions include … July 4th? It’s bank independence day! July 4 is always when my American friends give Britain the middle finger and proudly celebrate Paul Revere’s midnight ride that led to Independence Day on July 4, 1776. Great … but what about bank independence day? Most central banks, including the…

The Finanser’s Week: 24th June – 30th June 2024

The main blog discussions this week include … A financial offer to die for I attended a meeting this week presenting a variety of startups and their ideas. All of them were great, but one stood out for me: Fairwill. Obviously playing on the word farewell, Fairwill provides an exit policy for humans … as…

The Finanser’s Week: 17th June – 23rd June 2024

This week’s main blog discussions include … Weaponising bank branch closures The UK has an election in July. The likely winner is the left-of-centre Labour Party, after 14 years of the righter wing Conservative Party. The new leader will be Sir Kier Starmer, a guy described as a “political robot”. Nevertheless, his party has created a…